Colorado Springs School to host ‘Great Iron Pour’

The Colorado Springs School has announced it will be the only high school in the country to host an iron pour as a “pinnacle experience” for students in a metalworking Experience Centered Seminar.

The Great Iron Pour will start with the lighting of furnaces and ignition of flame throwers at 10 a.m. Thursday, according to a school news release. Students in the program, which focuses on “intensive and hands-on study,” will then melt down 1,000 pounds of iron collected from old radiators, brake drums and other scraps and start pouring the molten metal into their own molds in that afternoon.

“As twilight approaches the last of the artworks are poured,” according to the release. “The cupola is tapped for the last iron and the bottom dropped in a fireball of glory. The final ladle of metal is then poured into a crowd-pleasing pyrotechnic display.”

The Iron Pour ECS is an Upper School course in which students study the history of and methods used to create art from pouring molten metals, the release said. This is the school’s fifth such event since 1994. Students in the course also studied techniques related to the pouring of aluminum and bronze, as well as forging.

There are a variety of other ECS programs, which are designed to immerse the students in a chosen field, such as sailing, microbiology and space exploration.

“Each March, our students participate in a three- to-four-week study that immerses them in academic subjects through a hands-on, interdisciplinary approach,” the release said. “ECS’s approach broad, interdisciplinary questions to optimize the teaching of critical thinking, organized inquiry, in-depth analysis, and synthesis of information.”

Our Poll

What two priorities should stand out most for Colorado Springs' next mayor?